AsteriskNOW is a software appliance, a customized Linux distribution that includes Asterisk, the AsteriskGUI, and all other software needed for an Asterisk system. The world's leading open source telephony engine and toolkit, Asterisk can now be easily configured with a graphical interface. AsteriskNOW includes all the Linux components necessary to run, debug and build Asterisk. Since version 1.5, AsteriskNOW is based on CentOS (earlier versions were based on rPath Linux).

This week we have been hearing a lot about a new desktop environment called LXQt, the result of a merger between the LXDE and Razor-qt projects. Those willing to investigate the new desktop can now do so in a live environment - thanks to the brand-new development release of the Debian-based siduction. From the release notes: "We are very happy to present to you today, straight from the LinuxTag conference in Berlin, the first integration of the shiny new LXQt desktop environment into a distribution image. This is clearly labeled as a development release, so do not trust it, it might kill your kittens, although the developers of LXQt flagged it as being beta status. The released image which is only available for 64-bit systems for now is a snapshot of Debian's 'unstable' branch from 2014-05-08. It is enhanced with the lightweight LXQt desktop environment, some useful packages and scripts, our own installer and a custom-patched version of the Linux kernel 3.14.3." Here is the download link: siduction-14.1.0-lxqt-amd64.iso (793MB, SHA256).

The siduction distribution is a desktop-oriented operating system and live medium based on the "unstable" branch of Debian GNU/Linux. Forked from aptosid in late 2011, siduction offers three separate live media with KDE, LXDE and Xfce desktops. The project also promises regular releases, an open development model, and friendly relationship with its developer and user community.

Ferdinand Thommes has announced the release of siduction 16.1.0, a set of distributions based on Debian's "unstable" branch. The release arrives in two batches, with the one made available today coming in LXDE, Xfce and KDE Plasma flavours, while a second batch, featuring GNOME, Cinnamon, MATE and LXQt, is scheduled for release in January. "Today we present the first batch of siduction 2016.1 which consists of the noX, Xorg, LXDE, Xfce and Plasma 5 flavours. We attempt to release a second batch with the GNOME, Cinnamon, MATE and LXQt flavours as soon as possible in the new year. The released images are a snapshot of Debian 'unstable' that also goes by the name of 'Sid', from 2016-12-23. They are enhanced with some useful packages and scripts, our own installer and a custom patched version of the Linux kernel 4.9, accompanied by X.Org Server 1.19.0 and systemd 232." Read the full release notes for more details. Download (pkglist): siduction-16.1.0-kde-amd64.iso (1,528MB, SHA256), siduction-16.1.0-lxde-amd64.iso (1,094MB, SHA256), siduction-16.1.0-xfce-amd64.iso (1,130MB, SHA256).

Happy New Year! The first release announcement of the year 2016 is from the developers of siduction, a set of Linux distributions based on Debian's "unstable" branch, who have released an initial development build of the product's 15.1.0 version. The release includes Cinnamon, LXQt, MATE (a new addition) and Xfce flavours, with KDE Plasma, GNOME and LXQt not quite ready yet, although they should be available within a day or two. From the release notes: "We present to you today a dev-release at the last possible point in time for this year and inform you of some changes in our release model. siduction is a distribution based on Debian's unstable branch. With a heavy heart we dedicate this release to the memory of the founder of Debian, Ian Murdock, who passed away on December 28, 2015, aged 42. We will try to keep his vision alive. For 2015 we can just release this dev-release, even though we would have liked to do more. Due to the course that Debian Unstable and some desktop environments took over the course of the year, we had no chance to get a release ready with all flavours." Download links (pkglist): siduction-15.1.0-cinnamon-amd64.iso (1,203MB, SHA256), siduction-15.1.0-lxde-amd64.iso (1,016MB, SHA256), siduction-15.1.0-mate-amd64.iso (1,143MB, SHA256), siduction-15.1.0-xfce-amd64.iso (1,093MB, SHA256), siduction-15.1.0-xorg-amd64.iso (936MB, SHA256).

On the last day of 2013, Ferdinand Thommes announced the release of siduction 13.2.0, a Linux distribution based on Debian's "unstable" branch. This release has taken a step into the possible future of Debian and implemented systemd as the new init system. From the release announcement: "We are very happy to present to you the final release of siduction 2013.2 'December'. Since the release of the RC we have ironed out some nasty bugs with language packs, Unicode handling in the installer and stabilization within systemd. Version 2013.2 is shipped with 5 desktop environments: KDE, Xfce, LXDE, Razor-qt and GNOME. The released images are a snapshot of Debian unstable from 2013-12-30. They are enhanced with some useful packages and scripts, our own installer and a custom patched version of the Linux kernel 3.12, accompanied by X.Org Server 1.14.5." Download links: siduction-13.2.0-gnome-amd64.iso (1,020MB, SHA256), siduction-13.2.0-kde-amd64.iso (1,116MB, SHA256), siduction-13.2.0-lxde-amd64.iso (665MB, SHA256), siduction-13.2.0-rqt-amd64.iso (744MB, SHA256), siduction-13.2.0-xfce-amd64.iso (766MB, SHA256).

Ferdinand Thommes has announced the final release of siduction 12.2.0, a desktop Linux distribution based on Debian's unstable branch and offering four separate editions with KDE, LXDE, Razor-qt and Xfce desktops: "We are very happy to present to you the final release of siduction 2012.2 - Riders on the Storm. Siduction is a full live distribution with an integrated installer, based on Debian's unstable branch, and we try to release snapshots quarterly. The released images are a snapshot of Debian unstable from 2012-12-09. They are enhanced with some useful packages and scripts, our own installer and a custom-patched version of the Linux kernel 3.6.9, accompanied by X.Org Server 1.12.4." Read the detailed release notes for a list of recent changes and bug fixes. Download the KDE editions from here (for the other edition please visit the project's download page): siduction-12.2.0-kde-i386.iso (1,010MB, SHA256), siduction-12.2.0-kde-amd64.iso (1,013MB, SHA256).

Ferdinand Thommes has announced the availability of the second release candidate for siduction 12.2.0, a desktop Linux distribution based on Debian's unstable branch and featuring four desktop environments - KDE, LXDE, Razor-qt and Xfce: "We are happy to present to you the second release candidate of siduction 2012.2. Siduction is a distribution based on Debian's unstable branch and we try to release snapshots quarterly. Please report any bugs you find in this RC to our forum or Chili. We have fixed a number of bugs that turned up in RC1: the bluewater manual is now available in Romanian; fw-detect works again as expected for installing non-free firmware; creation of sources.list during the building of the images got an overhaul; new upstream for wbar, wbar-config added; added correct firmware-link for AR7010+AR9287 devices to fw-detect...." See the detailed release notes for further information. Quick links to download the KDE variant (for other editions please see the project's download page): siduction-12.2.0~rc2-kde-i386.iso (1,010MB, SHA256), siduction-12.2.0~rc2-kde-amd64.iso (1,013MB, SHA256).